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Just back from Auschwitz.....

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  • 06-03-2011 9:35pm
    #1
    smiletime
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27 ✭


    Just got back from a trip to Auschwitz.

    How on earth are people out there denying that the Holocaust happened?

    What an emotional and sad place. :(


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    #2
    Ken.
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,898 ✭✭✭✭Ken.


    If you dont mind me asking, was it expensive to get there. I'd love to visit it some day.


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    #3
    smiletime
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27 ✭smiletime


    lucyfur09 wrote: »
    If you dont mind me asking, was it expensive to get there. I'd love to visit it some day.

    Hi there,

    It was quite cheap to go. I got an Aer Lingus flight which was 35 euro. The accomodation over there can be as cheap or expensive as you like. And the trip to Auschwitz itself was around 30 euro.

    Glad I went. Have always wanted to see it. :)


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    #4
    Spore
    Registered Users Posts: 1,123 ✭✭✭Spore


    Visited Auschwitz last year... hadn't the effect on me I thought it would. Didn't feel that real, in the sense that a lot of it has been rebuilt after initial Nazi attempts to destroy the sight, then terrible storm damage. The one thing that did freak me out was the 'cell for standing' such an unneccesarily cruel punishment. I'd actually recommend people just watch Schindler's List to get a better insight into the Holocaust. The sequence when Amon Goeth's men dig up hundreds of corpses and has them burnt in huge pyres is the best metaphor I've ever seen for the holocaust - hell on earth.


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    #5
    spurious
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,185 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    Once you're in Krakow, you can get to Auschwitz fairly cheaply if you use public transport (bus from the Central Train station). The cost to visit the museum is free, though there is a charge if you use a foreign language (English) guide.


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    #6
    novarock
    Registered Users Posts: 1,132 ✭✭✭novarock


    I visited it last year.. If you are staying in a hotel over there, they can more than likely arrange a pickup/drop off tour for you very easily.

    It didnt have the effect on me I thought it would, It didnt help that the weather was absolutely amazing when i was there.

    I found it difficult to grasp the extent of it until we went to birkenau, now that place is a proper death camp - just the sheer scale of it alone.


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    #7
    Ken.
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,898 ✭✭✭✭Ken.


    novarock wrote: »
    I visited it last year.. If you are staying in a hotel over there, they can more than likely arrange a pickup/drop off tour for you very easily.

    It didnt have the effect on me I thought it would, It didnt help that the weather was absolutely amazing when i was there.

    I found it difficult to grasp the extent of it until we went to birkenau, now that place is a proper death camp - just the sheer scale of it alone.
    Is birkenau far from auschwitz?, did you do both on one trip?


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    #8
    old hippy
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 9,441 ✭✭✭old hippy


    spurious wrote: »
    Once you're in Krakow, you can get to Auschwitz fairly cheaply if you use public transport (bus from the Central Train station). The cost to visit the museum is free, though there is a charge if you use a foreign language (English) guide.

    On the bus to the camps, you're shown a film about the attrocities. If that doesn't have you broken up, the tour around the place will. It was the mounds of human hair that brought the tears forth.

    We did it in a long weekend in Krakow - it hadn't been on our plan but glad we did it.


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    #9
    jonniebgood1
    Registered Users Posts: 3,577 ✭✭✭jonniebgood1


    lucyfur09 wrote: »
    Is birkenau far from auschwitz?, did you do both on one trip?

    It is a short journey, You can walk but better to use the provided transport as its a couple of mile (from memory). It is the most necessary part of the Auscwitz trip to see the scale of Birkenau.


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    #10
    ReacherCreature
    Registered Users Posts: 4,500 ✭✭✭ReacherCreature


    Isn't Birkenau and Auschwitz all a part of the same complex? I'd imagine a visit to Auschwitz would or should incorporate a visit to Birkenau.


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    #11
    smiletime
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27 ✭smiletime


    Yes Birkenau is next to Auschwitz.

    There is a short bus journey to it. All incorporated into the fee you pay as part of bus trip.

    Well worth visiting and so glad I went.


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    #12
    Fuinseog
    Registered Users Posts: 5,371 ✭✭✭Fuinseog


    smiletime wrote: »
    Just got back from a trip to Auschwitz.

    How on earth are people out there denying that the Holocaust happened?

    What an emotional and sad place. :(

    what kind of person goes on a misery holiday? I hope you got the made to measure tour.


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    #13
    smiletime
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27 ✭smiletime


    Fuinseog wrote: »
    what kind of person goes on a misery holiday? I hope you got the made to measure tour.

    A person who wants to learn and has interests in history.

    You gob****e.


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    #14
    Fuinseog
    Registered Users Posts: 5,371 ✭✭✭Fuinseog


    Spore wrote: »
    Visited Auschwitz last year... hadn't the effect on me I thought it would. Didn't feel that real, in the sense that a lot of it has been rebuilt after initial Nazi attempts to destroy the sight, then terrible storm damage. The one thing that did freak me out was the 'cell for standing' such an unneccesarily cruel punishment. I'd actually recommend people just watch Schindler's List to get a better insight into the Holocaust. The sequence when Amon Goeth's men dig up hundreds of corpses and has them burnt in huge pyres is the best metaphor I've ever seen for the holocaust - hell on earth.

    yeah, Schindler's list is great. I just love 'ze German' accent they had in it. Schindler himself, though a kraut and nazi spoke quite normally.


    I am sure Schindler's list is an accurate depiction of what happened. twas hell on earth like an Irish industrial school.

    the Germans just could not have done it without the help of Jeewish kapos and Jewish police.


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    #15
    Fuinseog
    Registered Users Posts: 5,371 ✭✭✭Fuinseog


    spurious wrote: »
    Once you're in Krakow, you can get to Auschwitz fairly cheaply if you use public transport (bus from the Central Train station). The cost to visit the museum is free, though there is a charge if you use a foreign language (English) guide.

    free admission to the theme park? they are crazy. they could missing out on a fotune.


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    #16
    Fuinseog
    Registered Users Posts: 5,371 ✭✭✭Fuinseog


    smiletime wrote: »
    A person who wants to learn and has interests in history.

    You gob****e.

    attack the post, not the poster. it should be possible to have a civilized debate here. this is not the gutter or schoolyard.


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    #17
    Fuinseog
    Registered Users Posts: 5,371 ✭✭✭Fuinseog


    old hippy wrote: »
    On the bus to the camps, you're shown a film about the attrocities. If that doesn't have you broken up, the tour around the place will. It was the mounds of human hair that brought the tears forth.

    We did it in a long weekend in Krakow - it hadn't been on our plan but glad we did it.

    they have it well organised.


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    #18
    Bullseye1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,731 ✭✭✭Bullseye1


    I haven't been to Auschwitz but I was in a smaller camp in Flossenburg

    http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flossenbürg_concentration_camp

    It wasn't just Jews killed there many POW from eastern Europe were also killed there.

    Do people not find it interesting that the 20 million plus deaths the soviet people suffered does not get the same coverage as the atrocity carried out to the 7-8 million Jewish people. Same for the large population of Chinese killed in WWII.


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    #19
    pljudge321
    Registered Users Posts: 1,129 ✭✭✭pljudge321


    I was there about three years ago. The solemnity of the place was kind of ruined by how packed with tourists the place is. Birkenau is quieter than Auschitwz I and a bit more haunting. Its odd when you are walking up the path towards the crematoria how many more people walked up the path than dwn it when the camp was running.

    I know the bit that got to me the most, and I'm sure anyone else who has been there can testify, is the case of women's hair that they have on display in Auschitwz I. Its hard quantifying in your mind just the scale of what went on there in your mind but that display really drives it home.


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    #20
    Fuinseog
    Registered Users Posts: 5,371 ✭✭✭Fuinseog


    Bullseye1 wrote: »
    I haven't been to Auschwitz but I was in a smaller camp in Flossenburg

    http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flossenbürg_concentration_camp

    It wasn't just Jews killed there many POW from eastern Europe were also killed there.

    Do people not find it interesting that the 20 million plus deaths the soviet people suffered does not get the same coverage as the atrocity carried out to the 7-8 million Jewish people. Same for the large population of Chinese killed in WWII.


    no. Forget about Guantanamo Bay, Rwanda, Balkans, Irish Famine etc. The only people who ever suffered were the Jews.

    the Jews control Hollywood so they control how the shoah is depicted in film. we are told what to think and if you fail to accept or question anything you are a holocaust denier.


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    #21
    harr
    Registered Users Posts: 4,485 ✭✭✭harr


    was there last year when we went on a long weekend to Krakow and we used a private driver who we had arranged to pick us up from the airport it worked out around 70 euro for airport return and return trip to Auschwitz in a Mercedes people carrier,it was 70 euro well spent.The driver had very good English and he new his history very well.the trip to Krakow itself worked out around 420 for flights and 3 nights for 2 people.we also did the communist tour of the old part of Krakow in one of them old cars not sure of make maybe a lada this was also a good tour as was a trip to the salt mines. I still have the number somewhere of the privet taxi if anyboby needs it.


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    #22
    theparish
    Registered Users Posts: 252 ✭✭theparish


    I was there a couple of years ago.I was probably desensitized by all the holocaust documentaries that I saw over the years.
    I really enjoyed Krakow and the seriously cheap price of food and drink.


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    #23
    Bullseye1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,731 ✭✭✭Bullseye1


    Fuinseog wrote: »
    no. Forget about Guantanamo Bay, Rwanda, Balkans, Irish Famine etc. The only people who ever suffered were the Jews.

    the Jews control Hollywood so they control how the shoah is depicted in film. we are told what to think and if you fail to accept or question anything you are a holocaust denier.

    I have no problem with the Jewish population ensuring the rest of the world never forgets. Afterall they have suffered at the hand of others alot longer than most.

    My point is alot more Soviet people died in WWII, i think I read if you subtract the Chinese deaths more Soviets died than the Jewish People, Americans, British, Germans etc put together.


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    #24
    Fuinseog
    Registered Users Posts: 5,371 ✭✭✭Fuinseog


    Bullseye1 wrote: »
    I have no problem with the Jewish population ensuring the rest of the world never forgets. Afterall they have suffered at the hand of others alot longer than most.

    My point is alot more Soviet people died in WWII, i think I read if you subtract the Chinese deaths more Soviets died than the Jewish People, Americans, British, Germans etc put together.

    if an Irish person harped on about 800 years of oppression, they would be told to grow up and become more mature. Maybe its time for the chosen people to do the same. They can only milk the holocaust industry for a few more years anyway, before people get sick and tired of it.

    The Jews make me laugh. they hate the Germans, yet were major contributors to Germanic culture.


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    #25
    Bullseye1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,731 ✭✭✭Bullseye1


    I don't think they hate the Germans at all. I cannot see how they can blame the children for the sins of their fathers. I don't think that is the case anyway.


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    #26
    brianthebard
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,165 ✭✭✭✭brianthebard


    Fuinseog banned for a week for trolling so no more replies to their posts please. Mod.


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    #27
    convert
    Registered Users Posts: 9,338 ✭✭✭convert


    I've not been to Auschwitz (yet), but I did visit Dachau when I was on a break in Munich.

    It was a really worthwhile experience, and touring the place really brought home the experiences of those who were interred there.

    I went on a guided tour from the centre of Munich and the guide was fantastic. He was a history student at university, and had a great grasp of the history of the era (impressive for me to say, as usually I always pick up on some inaccuracies by guides). There were only about 10 of us on the tour, all English speaking, so it was really intimate and felt more like a group outing rather than a guided tour/history lesson.


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    #28
    Wolfe Tone
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,670 ✭✭✭✭Wolfe Tone


    I was there a few years ago when I was in TY, the lasting impression I have is me and my fellow shocked students leaving the room with the hair to be confronted by a group of Americans laughing hysterically, our guide nearly throttled them


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    #29
    jos28
    Registered Users Posts: 7,194 ✭✭✭jos28


    I went to both camps while I was in Kracow in October. Definitely worth going, its a very sombre yet intriguing. I went on an organised tour and the journey home was very quiet. Both places were very surreal with a strange sense of calm. Birkenau is located at the edge of a wood and its really weird but there are no birds in the sky. Not a single one


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    #30
    Einhard
    Registered Users Posts: 6,920 ✭✭✭Einhard


    Bullseye1 wrote: »
    Do people not find it interesting that the 20 million plus deaths the soviet people suffered does not get the same coverage as the atrocity carried out to the 7-8 million Jewish people. Same for the large population of Chinese killed in WWII.

    None of those other groups were targeted for mass extermination because of their ethnicity though. That's what makes the Holocaust, and events like it, so chilling.

    I have to say that my blood ran cold reading some of the comments on this thread from one individual, especially as some people thanked them. Is it any wonder that the Jews don't want the world to forget?


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    #31
    brianthebard
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,165 ✭✭✭✭brianthebard


    Einhard wrote: »
    None of those other groups were targeted for mass extermination because of their ethnicity though.

    In fairness the slavic people were earmarked for extermination/slavery but the germans didn't get around to it fully. I realise however that the figure Bullseye is referring to includes those killed in action and people tend to remember those differently than those killed in the holocaust.


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